Wednesday, 25 January 2012

'many people at cambridge deserve the title "psychopomp"'

So I've just had the most amazing supervision of my life. I was intending to go to my supervision, come back, and write a blog about the past few days...

That's just been blown out of the water.

My supervisor, a famous Professor whom I shan't name incase Cambridge computer nerds track me down and tell me off, is one of the most amazing academics I've ever encountered.

We were discussing Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene' which, although I found it superbly boring, seems, through my supervisor's eyes, to be absolutely sensational and now I view that text in a completely different way! It's wonderful!

He even liked my essay and was hyping about my comparison between the Garden of Adonis and the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

Our discussions then wandered into the realm of marriage and Spenser's view of marriage and marital love. Unlike most love-poets, Spenser focuses heavily on love in marriage which got me thinking about why this is such a rare occurrence. Love after marriage becomes stale... Boring... Something uninspiring. But for Spenser, this love blossoms after marriage and keeps on growing - something I then related to the birth, death, rebirth cycle in the Garden of Adonis... Yes, the only passage in Book III I actually paid attention to and therefore the only passage I could actually write 2000 words about. I started thinking about how relevant this is today - we now refer to the beginning of a new relationship, after the 'chase', as the 'honeymoon period' and after that everything pretty much goes downhill. I know for a fact, after the 'honeymoon period' for me, I get slightly disenchanted by the relationship and I need new and exciting things to rekindle that fire. Something is definitely wrong with me. This is why 'love' and 'in love' are very different and not interchangeable in sentences though one of course loves when they are in love. But you do not necessarily need to be in love when you love. This is something I need to work on. There is always a constant 'love' but my 'in love' fluctuates - it pops up at random times, random events; its triggered by anything, a cute text, a smile, even an argument resulting in tears... But I digress.

Our Professor is absolutely wonderful in the way that he makes everything you say seem like the right thing to say - he values every point and does not criticise derogatorily, only constructively and in such a nice way you can't be upset about it. I'm actually truly inspired to do my work.

His office is wonderful - I wish I could take a picture of it. The books are strewn everywhere and there must be thousands - the buzzer went and he had to go and answer it, and in order to get there he had to tiptoe around islands and islands of books. If my mum saw my room in such a state she'd yell at me about having no respect for books - but these books don't look disrespected - they look loved, and cherished and severely revered.

My DOS's office is quite the opposite, it is tidy and the books are beautifully shelved - I think I'd like my office to look like that when I'm older. The books are equally respected and loved. They're both incredibly inspiring people who know a lot about a lot and I hope one day to be as knowledgeable as them.

I'm now ready to tackle the issue of the heroic and the redefinition Milton gives the term in Paradise Lost - something I'm going to link to FEMALE POWER WOOOOO!!!! and perhaps back to my new found love of Spenser.

In other news: my best friend and I managed to have a stand-off waiting for an apology from him. We had a nice catch-up last night and he managed to actually compliment me multiple times. It was jokes.

I'm missing some people, its weird having them around all the time and then nothing... My mum's coming down at the weekend though, and my dad, so I'll hit Cambridge with my camera. However, until then I need to do my work, attend my lectures and get on top of everything so I have a whole full day to enjoy my parents company.

I'm in such an inspired mood I'm going to walk to the library immediately, return the books I no longer need and get out the books I do! Excited!! Then I'll do my Old English work.

In the meantime, seeing as this has actually been a really really boring post for anyone not interested in my interests and my degree, I'll leave you with the song me and my friend played non-stop last night, to voice our depression which is actually all imagined (I've decided).